MUMBAI, June 15: Warning: Please do not worry yourself to death over Mumbai's alarming real estate scenario. For, land for dead also is scarce these days.

In the densely populated stretch of suburbs between Jogeshwari (east) and Borivali (east), there are no cemeteries. And the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has admitted that when it comes to burial grounds it has reached a dead end - no pun intended. After having failed to evacuate slum dwellers from the two plots reserved for conversion into a cemetery, the corporation now has reserved a third plot which also is home to several jhuggies. The plots at Kurar village and Raheja Township were reserved in 1992, but the corporation failed to secure their possession. Now, the corporation has reserved a plot near Appa Pada at Malad village.

Officials said it will be difficult to remove the encroachers from the two plots as all of them are entitled to houses under the Slum Redevelopment Scheme. If they were to be removed, the BMC would have to rehabilitate them somewhere else. The corporators have raised the issue time and again since 1992 but the corporation has been silent on the issue. Four years of debate in the corporation has proved futile. Officials at the corporation confirmed that the third plot (survey no 223) near Appa Pada in Malad village has been reserved for the cemetery in the latest development plan of P-north.

However, as the entire plot has been encroached upon, the building department cannot take up any construction work, they pointed. They said that the acquisition department has already been instructed to acquire the plot. ``The BMC can take steps only after the plot is acquired and handed over to it.''

The acquisition department is not bound by any time frame. And with the announcement of the Slum Redevelopment Scheme, acquisition of the plot will be difficult. The issue was first raised by the then corporators Dr Pushpa Ahirwar and the late Ramdas Nayak. They had requested the corporation to draw up a time-bound scheme for developing the two plots at Malad. Dr Ram Barot has also been trying to focus the BMC's attention on the issue for the last four years. He said that the 15 lakh people residing on the eastern side of the suburbs have to go to the west to lay their near and dear ones to rest.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.